Our performance

Starlight program reach

At the very heart of every Starlight decision is one question, "What is best for the children and young people Starlight supports?". During this past year Starlight continued to make all decisions asking this same question.

Starlight is an essential service, and as restrictions escalated in 2020 Starlight programs were needed more than ever. Starlight continues to be there in any way we can for children and their families.

Despite the challenges, Starlight delivered 386,944 positive Starlight experiences via our traditional Programs and another 126,679 created by new digital initiatives. That's more than 513,000 positive Starlight experiences delivered in 2020!

To deliver Starlight programs to meet the growing need we must continue to expand our reach, which will require continued increases in our fundraising.

Amplifying our impact

We know the quality and impact of our programs is high and we continue to invest in research to ensure what we do continues to be effective and efficient.

We are also committed to understanding and improving the impact of our Starlight programs.

We have completed two Social Return On Investment studies (SROI) to quantify our impact and community value.

2020 Income and expenses

In 2020, Starlight earned fundraising income of $29.3million. Fundraising income was down 25% v budget reflecting the impact of event cancellations and restrictions on fundraising activity.

Expenses over the same period were $34million.

Across the organisation costs reduced in 2020 due to significant restrictions on both program delivery and fundraising activities.

2020 Program spend

Although the events of 2020 caused serious disruption to program delivery, Starlight's expenditure on Programs still represents 57.7% of our fundraising income in 2020 (58.1% in 2019).

$288,096 is the value of volunteer hours contributed to Starlight programs for the year.

We received $2,259,573 total value of donated goods and services used in program delivery.

This includes:

• Volunteer Hours - significantly down v a year ago due to Covid-19 restrictions

• Toys, games from amazing partners like EB Games and art supplies for our Starlight Express Rooms & Livewire

Thank you to all our volunteers and all who have donated other goods and services critical for program delivery.